underwhelmed/overwhelmed by it all.

Okay, i'll admit. Sleetstack's and Neil systems did move me to nirvana and tears, respectively, but for the most part all the new gear amp vendors have been putting out is middlesome at best.

Example 1: The B52 was one amazing product. I didn't like it to start with, but after hearing it on Billy's system I grew to have much respect for it as one of the top headphone amps out there. The apache wasn't the same. On the same piece of music, on the same headphones, the apache sounded like it had some amount of glare and "TV" around the music that seemed so clean and pure on the B52.

Example 2: The new singlepower SS amp. For 1700 dollars i sort of expected an amplifier in the same performance range as the 1600$ zana deux, but instead i got something less than that. it was more or less equal to a balanced desktop and an apache, as opposed to belonging to the B52, dynamight, and Max balanced crowd.

Example 3: that new woo audio 300b amp. okay, this baby has more power than a nuclear reactor, but power is only 50 percent of the game. this thing was far from neutral and had a particularly small soundstage.

Example 4: the gold plated Maestro XLR- I really expected to hear the world lifted to a new level. instead i got fuzzy imaging, big power, and a particularly "singlepower" tube sound. It was good, just not the upgrade i'm looking for.

But there were some products I found that were worthy upgrades that I will be looking at. These are the Winners for my system:

1. The bel canto dac-3 is surprisingly good, very large and I think i'll try to buy one, since it is obviously in the same league as other good dacs. this might actually be the overall winner.. but i need more time with it.

2. The Triple-fi pro- this thing is great. it sounds like a well done HD650, and that's all i can ask for in an IEM.

3. Audio Art Cable- their copper/silver hybrid cable. It took a while and i got some impressions, but not enough. I had Ray, David, and several others listen to it and give individual impressions. Time and again, this 99$ dollar cable was picked over the Grover UR8.

4. The Sony Qualia. Not because I have anything new to report. but because I still want one and can't get it out of my mind.

5. The Moon Audio Silver Dragon V2 cable. On sleetstack's system this thing was just perfect. Whatever prejudice i had against silver cables has flied out the window because of this meet.

There are winners that I can't say i'll ever upgrade to but deserve serious mention because they showed themselves as great components during this meet.

1. EMM Labs and the Sennheiser Orpheus- once again, this system moved me like no other and laid down which headphone is the best.

2. Virtual Dynamics cables and the Oritek X-2, both cables performed remarkably well. The X-2 was detailed, more impactful and upfront while the VD was simply beautiful sounding.

3. The HD650, simply seeing how much this can was able to transform on different set ups has given me a different respect for how good cans can be.

4. Esoteric D-03, P-03. Damn, this system was good. the clarity, the pronunciation of every instrument was just perfect.

5. The Zana Deux. I came in expecting to find several things that i could upgrade to from this amp... and found nothing outside of the 6K range that could significantly beat it. Which leaves me in a tough spot actually.

6. The Beta 22, the cubed version of this amp is out right stunning. I actually liked it better than any of the new SS gear outside of the SS-1. I'd love to hear this thing against the dynamight.

The, I can't get a good range to make any decision stuff:

1. The new Benchmark Dac-1. the guy didn't let me do an A/b next to the older one. I wanted to do it using the Dynamight.

2. (turns out I'm responsible for messing up the CD player, at least that's what third parties tell me) My bad.

3. The Lavry Gold- of all the good amps that needed good sources, they decided to put this thing on the woo audio 3! not even the 5 or 6.

4. the SDS-XLR. I've desperately wanted to hear this thing for years, and it was either not working, needed tubes or too swamped with people to be able to hear it.

Bias

1. I really can't get the appeal of meridian players, and have a tendency to rank things out of meridian players kind of low.

2. I Have a tendency to like precise imaging mixed with holographic tendencies. It's a hard thing to pull off, which is why I don't like so many tube amps, even the really good ones.

Heres something you don't see every day....
An SR325i with an RS1/2, GS1k headband. Somewhat rare occurrence, and there were 2 of these here today. I personally have never seen John do this before. It alleviates my only real complaint about the SR325i... headband comfort and padding. The standard 325i headband is much more narrow and has less padding than the thicker ones pictured here.

This one is Jocelyns (from team Berkely-Fi). She was saying she bought it used, and neither her or the seller had any idea this is the Reference/Statement/Professional series headband.

comparison with an RS1....

The 2 near cans are RS1s, the far one is Jocelyns 325i...

I really like the headamp AE-2.

Its relatively new and is based on the AD8397 OP amp.... a very good sounding OP amp when paired with an open, accurate, detailed source. Its got some bass oomph/kick and some nicely forward mids to balance out the spectrum. A good groovy sound signature for portable use IMHO.

Heres something I don't think many members noticed today... Look closely at the graining and texture of the aluminum. Notice how the grains are uniform across the top of the enclosure, front faceplate and back pannel... and extend across the top of the faceplate panel.

What that means is the entire enclosure has to be assembled and buffed/sanded/textured as a complete unit. Then taken apart and serial numbered as a matched set, to go off the anodizing shop. Its a bunch of extra part-matching and re-sorting that no one would want to attempt to implement in a sustaining production process.

Furthermore... if the anodizing shop makes a mistake and needs to scrap the front faceplate, the whole matched set has to be scrapped, or re-worked to grain-match a new faceplate. Anodize coatings are hard and a pain to sand through to the base metal.

Polishing and graining aluminum is very labor intensive, and its an art-form, getting the texture uniformly matched. Airborne aluminum particles are cancer-causing too over long exposure.

The knobs are polished with a metal polishing compound. It gives them a nice smooth "warm" feel to the touch.

My pics dont do them justice... take a close look at these tomorrow everyone. its a very unique looking and GOOD sounding amp. Of course the GS1 is mind boggling too.

Justin, thanks for the detailed discussions. I'll be on the look-out for a metal shop that specializes in polishing. There are some semiconductor tooling suppliers out here in the valley that do this kind of work.

Sleestack ordered a Singlepower SS. If he doesn't mind, he'll be able to enlighten us with the rough price. I seem to remember him mentioning it some time ago. It was a lot

no; sleestack's dealie is a custom job, the one we're talking about here is called the squarewave and is under $2000 iirc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by granodemostasa

The bel canto dac-3 is surprisingly good, very large and I think i'll try to buy one, since it is obviously in the same league as other good dacs. this might actually be the overall winner.. but i need more time with it.

it's got a clock in it too, which gives it an advantage i guess. i am interested in this and hope more people post impressions. very nice looking. if i go balanced it's either this or a da220 mkii + master clock generator. be sure to visit it again for your ol' pal monk.

Quote:

The Headroom Wadia player: that thing ate my CD and didn't give it back. It went nuts and they had to shut it down. Now i'm out a CD.